Ecolovies ~ No Plastic Wrap Bowl Wraps

I am not a "farm chick"... but I am a urban homesteader and that gives me a bit of that farm girl spirit. :) Plus, I love anything that helps me reduce waste and use old things... and this book is packed with recipes and strangely enough, ideas for using junk (they are antique dealers). I have been reading it before I go to bed every night lately, (Yes, I read cookbooks before I go to bed) and last week I got to the page where they were talking about picnics... they were talking about using old sheets for covering bowls in the old shower cap style. The covers they used were SO cute that I felt I had to copy.

At first I was all ok with 100% cotton covers... but then I got to thinking... what about taking foods like fruit salad? Wouldn't I need something like tin foil or plastic wrap? So I pulled out some leftover PUL! PUL is the cover stuff for cloth diapers waterproof but still fabric. And it is also the same stuff that lined the lunch bags I made that we have used now for two years. So enter my own creation:

First I cut out a circle in PUL that was 1 1/2 inch larger all the way around the bowls. Then I cut the fabric the same size and laid the two together stuck with pins in a couple points. I zigzagged a tiny zig around the whole outside of the two circles to hold the fabrics together and then I stitched a piece of 1/4 inch elastic to the entire circumference. They turned out SO cute and they were crazy easy and fast to make. I am sure I will be making them for all my bowls now. :)

More on the fabric and bowls. This cover fabric was found in my moms stash. I can't believe I never used it for anything before... an adorable gingham with strawberries? How stinkin' cute! But I am happy to say that I have it for this application and enough for a couple more besides. And the bowls? They were both used from Goodwill. It is really amazing what you can find there sometimes. Most of my dishes come from there actually. My plates are used restaurant plates with tons of wear left in them and WOW, they don't chip! We haven't chipped one in the year we have had them... and my teen does the dishes. ;)

Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but when you sew on the elastic, do you fold the fabric/PUL over the elastic and sew it in or do you just sew the elastic underneath the PUL/fabric? Does that make sense? Can you tell I'm new to this? Also, how do I know how big of a piece of elastic to use? Do I use the size of the top of the bowl or the size of the fabric that is 1 1/2 in. larger than the bowl? Thanks!

Jodi: I use very small elastic (1/4 inch to 1/2 inch) and I just sew it to the inside of the PUL and fabric. You always use a circle that is 1 1/2 inchs larger than the bowl. That gives you enough room for the fabric to wrap down the sides of the bowl a bit and gather with the elastic.

Just wanted to let you know that your fantastic bowl-cover idea won our Re-Craft contest over at French Picnic! We'd love to invite you to be on our blogroll at French Picnic (see our PEAR comment love project). Your blog is just the kind of thing we love!

Please send me your address and you'll be getting be TWO goody packages from us (one from me and one from Gabrielle). Congrats! We love your blog. :) You can contact me here at leafygreenes at gmail.com

sooo cute! I love that book as well and it's where I got the idea to make the tablecloth dishtowels. I love your covers! I think I have some PUL around here from our cloth diapering days. It's neon orange though! hope I can hide it under something cuter!